Mitch Keller's promising performance helps Pirates snap 13-game losing streak at Reds

Mitch Keller returned to the scene of the Memorial Day Massacre, where he made his disastrous major league debut in 2019, and held the Cincinnati Reds without an extra-base hit.

Keller was far from perfect, as the Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander allowed seven hits – all singles – and four walks but he left with a lead at Great American Ball Park.

That’s no small feat for the Pirates.

Nick Mears escaped a bases-loaded jam in the seventh inning, and the Pirates used a three-run eighth to snap a 13-game losing streak at Cincinnati by beating the Reds, 6-2, Tuesday night in a steady drizzle.

The Pirates (57-94) hadn’t beaten the Reds at Great American Ball Park since a 9-6 win on Aug. 13, 2020. The Pirates had been outscored, 70-22, in eight games there this season, giving up 21 home runs.

Pirates manager Derek Shelton said he was “very aware” of the streak.

“It feels a lot better than losing 13 straight, I’ll tell you that,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “It was a good team victory tonight. We did a lot of things well.”

Shelton said right-hander Connor Overton (0-0, 0.00 ERA) will start Wednesday at Cincinnati, when the Pirates will seek to win their fifth consecutive series and hand the Reds their ninth straight series defeat.

When Keller made his debut against the Reds on May 27, 2019, he allowed six runs in the first inning, including a grand slam, in an 8-1 loss. This time, he kept the ball in the park by inducing five pop flies and getting the Reds to ground into a pair of double plays.

“That’s huge. They’re really good hitting team and when they get hot they feed off that and just keep rolling,” Keller said. “I think we did a really good job as a group, just keeping them off the plate, keeping them uncomfortable. The defense behind us was great. Turning double plays in wet grass is tough and they did it.”

It was a promising performance for Keller (5-11), who was 3-7 with a 7.04 ERA in his first 12 starts this season but 2-4 with a 4.86 ERA in the nine starts since returning from Triple-A Indianapolis on Aug. 1.

Against the Reds, Keller followed the game plan by pitching inside, which opened up his slider on the outside.

The Reds (78-74) took a 1-0 lead when Kyle Farmer started the second inning with a single to right, advanced to third on a single by Eugenio Suarez and scored when Tucker Barnhart hit into a 4-6-3 double play.

The Pirates were boosted by a pair of big plays by right fielder Ben Gamel, the first to save an extra-base hit and the second to provide one.

When Reds pitcher Tyler Mahle hit a leadoff line drive off the wall in the third, Gamel fielded it off the bounce and made a perfect two-hop throw to shortstop Cole Tucker to get Mahle out at second base.

“That’s a huge play,” Keller said of Gamel’s throw. “I think that’s one of the bigger plays of the game there, honestly.”

Gamel then tied the game at 1-1 in the fourth inning with a broken-bat 350-foot home run to right field off Mahle (12-6).

The Reds responded by regaining the lead in the bottom of the fourth, on TJ Friedl’s bases-loaded sacrifice fly to left to score Votto for a 2-1 lead. Keller, however, stranded two baserunners when he got Mahle to ground out.

Ke’Bryan Hayes and Cole Tucker followed with back-to-back RBI singles to give the Pirates a 3-2 lead in the fifth.

For Pirates pitchers, it was a great escape.

Keller had runners on first and third with two outs in the sixth when he was replaced by lefty Anthony Banda. Catcher Michael Perez, starting his second consecutive game with Jacob Stallings on the seven-day concussion injured list, blocked a pitch in the dirt to prevent Farmer from scoring. Banda then struck out pinch hitter Asdrubal Cabrera on a 2-2 fastball to protect the lead.

“That’s a hell of a block,” Shelton said of Perez, who was 2 for 4 with an RBI and a run scored. “That saved us a run – and possibly could have saved us the game – so that’s a huge play.

Mears got into – and out of – a jam in the seventh, when he loaded the bases by walking Delino DeShields and Jonathan India and giving up a single to Max Schrock on a pop fly to shallow center. Mears got Nick Castellanos out on a pop foul to first, Joey Votto to pop out to center and striking out Farmer looking at an 0-2 curveball.

The Pirates tacked on three runs against reliever Michael Lorenzen in the eighth. Michael Perez singled to right to score Gamel for a 4-2 lead, Hoy Park followed with a sacrifice fly to left to drive in Anthony Alford to stretch it to 5-2 and pinch hitter Yoshi Tsutsugo doubled down the right field line to score Michael Perez to make it 6-2.

Shelton was impressed with how well Keller threw the ball, managed his way out of tough situations and delivered a win in a park where the Pirates hadn’t in over a year.

“I think that’s some of the growth that we’ve seen out of Mitch, where that inning before (his demotion) got out of control and he got out of the game,” Shelton said. “He continued to execute pitches, he minimized the damage and he gave us a chance to win the game.”